Barker falls in playoffs at provincials

Penny Barker took another interesting run at it, but she and her Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre teammates just couldn’t find the same kind of luck they had last season. Barker and her rink of third Deanna Doig, second Lorraine Schneider and lead Danielle Sicinski reached the playoff round at the 2018 Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts provincial women’s curling championship but lost in the three-four Page playoff game and was eliminated from the event.

It was a far cry from her magical showing in 2017, when she posted comeback win after comeback win before dominating the final to win her first provincial championship. Barker posted a 4-4 record through the round robin, winning 8-5 over Saskatoon Nutana’s Nancy Martin and falling 4-3 to eventual finalist Robyn Silvernagle of North Battleford on Jan. 2; losing 8-6 to Carlyle’s Cadance Chisholm and downing Saskatoon’s Stefanie Lawton 8-7 on Jan. 3; defeating Regina’s Ashley Howard 6-3 and Regina’s Amber Holland – formerly of Moose Jaw – 7-4 on Jan. 4 before closing out the preliminary round with an 8-4 loss to Saskatoon Nutana’s Sherry Anderson and 9-5 defeat at the hands of the Regina Callie’s Chantelle Eberle on Jan. 5.

That was good enough to land in a tiebreaker with Lawton, where Barker took a 4-3 win to advance to the playoffs.

It was there Barker ran into the hottest hand in the tournament — Anderson, the defending provincial and Canadian senior women’s champion. Barker took a 3-2 lead into the 10th end but couldn’t make it stand as Anderson scored two to take a 4-3 victory. Anderson would continue to turn back the clock the rest of the tournament and would defeat Eberle 6-5 in the semi-final before downing Silvernagle 7-6 in the championship final, her seventh career provincial title.

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Moose Jaw’s Todd Montgomery – playing third for Regina Highland’s Adam Casey – went undefeated though the Sask. Curling Tour Championship over the weekend to claim the overall title.

Casey defeated Saskatoon Nutana’s Steve Laycock 6-5 in the final.

Former Moose Jaw competitor Brent Gedak – with Moose Jaw’s Derek Owens at third – lost the ‘A’ final 6-2 to Casey before qualifying for the playoffs with a 6-2 win over Saskatoon’s Dale Craig.

Gedak downed Fox Valley’s Ryan Deis in the quarter-final before dropping a 7-4 decision to Casey in the semi-final.

The event also acted as a qualifier for the SaskTel Tankard provincial championship, with both Gedak and Casey having qualified earlier in the season.